Paris-Nice - Race Overview

ORICA-GreenEDGE leaves Paris-Nice with one stage podium and three top tens. Jens Keukeleire twice flew the flag for ORICA-GreenEDGE in the early break and Simon Yates made an impressive debut in his first WorldTour race of his young career. While the Australian outfit had clearly targeted stage wins in France, Sport Director Dave McPartland believes the team can still call the race a success despite missing out on the top step of the podium.

"We certainly hoped to leave here with stage wins, but we also were here to prepare for the spring classics. That was another major priority. We prepared well. There was a lot of talk about this race before the first stage. Lots of people were saying this was going to be a tame Paris-Nice because there were no mountains. Nothing about this race was tame It was a super hard race every single day. Hard racing like this is really good preparation for our Classics guys.

As I’ve already mentioned, Simon’s rides stand out as a bright spot. This is his first WorldTour race, and he has shown that he can mix it up with the best. He had a good ride yesterday. He another good ride today. We’re all very impressed with him and really looking forward to seeing what else he can do in the future.

Jens also showed that he has strong from. He spent a few days up the road, and he got to sprint once or twice. It was good for him to test his legs like that, and it was important for the team to have a presence in the race.

We don’t leave here with the results, but we come out of the race strong and more confident than when we started – and that’s definitely something we hoped to achieve." - Sport Director Dave McPartland